As seen in: Kid Icarus (NES)
Also in: Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS)
Distinguishing feature: Toga; laurel crown; tiny, useless wings.
Strengths: He’s not bad with a bow and arrow, and his meaty thighs are great for climbing upward, ever upward.
Weaknesses: Gravity, grim reapers, eggplants.
Profile by Philip Armstrong? | January 29, 2011
In the famous myth, the inventor Daedalus and his son Icarus escape from the deadly labyrinth of Crete by fashioning wings of wax and feathers. Overjoyed with the exuberance of flying, Icarus flies too close to the sun, where his wings melt and he falls to his death.
Pit is not this Icarus, though the "plummeting to death" part fits nicely. See, in the next universe over, Greece is known as Angel Land. Here everything good and light is ruled by the goddess Palutena, and the dark underworld is ruled by the monster Medusa. Not satisfied with her lot, Medusa wages war on the overworld, and one of Palutena’s champions, Pit, is captured and locked in a dungeon deep in the depths of the underworld. Palutena uses the last of her strength to free Pit and tell him how he must ascend out of hell, past Earth, and into the sky to defeat Medusa.
Unfortunately, Pit has some trouble with the concept of “up.” His jumps are wonky and he tends to slide around, which makes platforming tricky. Often he has to maneuver past tiny platforms while dealing with relentlessly spawning monsters. If this wasn’t harrowing enough, if Pit tries to duck under an enemy’s projectile while on a floating platform (as opposed to solid ground), he will drop straight through it to his ultimate demise.
"Lucky he has those wings!" you might think, but you'd be wrong. Pit’s wings won't work without a feather, which must be bought from one of Angel Land’s scattered shops. If Pit should fall off the screen while in possession of one, his wings will magically decide to work for a few seconds, thus giving Pit a chance to regain some footing. Feathers act as a kind of clumsy cherub insurance...which isn’t such a bad thing, seeing as Pit is one hell of a clumsy cherub.
Ultimately, one wishes Pit would just man up and flap those wings. Things would be so much easier of he could just fly past all the death specters and bitter fruit magicians.
Maybe Pit should take a lesson from his inspiration and craft some working, wax wings. Sure, there’s a danger of them melting, but the sun is high up, and Pit has a long way to go.
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